Zia Zihan
About Zia
Dr. Zia Zihan has over seven years of research experience in intelligent infrastructure systems and data-driven asset management, contributing to funded projects for the U.S. Department of Transportation and several articles published in leading transportation journals. His expertise includes pavement condition assessment using advanced data acquisition methods such as traffic speed deflection devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), combined with analytics driven by artificial intelligence (e.g., computer vision, machine learning, and spatial analysis) to develop scalable and cost-effective solutions for transportation infrastructure management.
Resume
Education
- PhD, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, 2024
- MS, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, 2019
- BS, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Islamic University of Technology, Gazipur City, Bangladesh, 2015
Professional Experience
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute for Transportation, 2025–present
- Graduate Research Assistant, Institute for Transportation, 2020–2024
- Graduate Research Assistant, Louisiana Transportation Research Center, 2019– 2020
- Graduate Research Assistant, Louisiana State University, 2017–2019
Selected Research Projects
- Automated Condition Assessment of Pedestrian Assets in Minnesota (Minnesota Department of Transportation): Research Assistant, 2023–present
- Trail Management Program (Des Moines Metropolitan Planning Organization): Research Assistant, 2022–present
- Automated Condition Assessment of Pedestrian Assets in Minnesota: Research Assistant, 2023–present
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based Pavement Condition Assessment, PhD Dissertation
- Quality Control and Quality Assurance of Automated Pavement Condition (Iowa Department of Transportation): Research Assistant, 2020–present
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Nlenanya, I., O. Smadi, and Z. U. Zihan. 2025. Assessing the Deterioration of Pedestrian Assets, No. MN 2025-19. Minnesota Department of Transportation, St. Paul, MN.
- Zihan, Z. U., F. Aghasi, O. Smadi, A. Sassani, and I. Nlenanya. 2025. Computing International Roughness Index from Airborne-LiDAR based Point Cloud Data for In-service State Roads. Presented at TRB Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.
- Alatoom, Y. I., Z. U. Zihan, I. Nlenanya, A. B. Al-Hamdan, and O. Smadi. 2024. A Sequence-Based Hybrid Ensemble Approach for Estimating Trail Pavement Roughness Using Smartphone and Bicycle Data. Infrastructures, Vol. 9, No. 10, 179pp.
- Zihan, Z. U., O. Smadi, and I. Nlenanya. 2023. Instance Segmentation of Pavement Distresses from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based Vision Data: An Implementation of Mask R-CNN. Presented at TRB Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.
- Zihan, Z. U., O. Smadi, M. Tilberg, and M. S. Yamany. 2023. Synthesizing the Performance of Deep Learning in Vision-based Pavement Distress Detection. Innovative Infrastructure Solutions, Vol. 8, No. 11, 299pp.
Shoaib Mahmud
About Shoaib
Shoaib Mahmud is housed at the Institute for Transportation, contributing to various research on projects associated with the Center for Transportation Research and Education.
Andalib Shams
About Andalib
Andalib Shams is housed at the Institute for Transportation, contributing to various research on projects associated with the Center for Transportation Research and Education.
Raghupathi Kandiboina
About Raghupathi
Raghupathi Kandiboina is housed at the Institute for Transportation, contributing to various research on projects associated with the Real-Time Analytics in Transportation (REACTOR) Laboratory.
Neeve Funston
About Neeve
Ms. Neeve Funston is a communications specialist working with the Institute for Transportation’s communications group. Her primary responsibilities include editing research reports and manuals, preparing newsletters, and assisting with website maintenance. Prior to joining InTrans, she held a variety of copyediting roles in both industry and academia.
Resume
Education
- BA, Linguistics, Iowa State University, 2022
- Minor in Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language
- BS, Technical Communication, Iowa State University, 2022
Professional Experience
- Communications Specialist, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, 2024-present
- Copyeditor, Global Reach Internet Productions, 2023-2024
- Grant and Proposal Copyeditor, Language Processing, Acquisition, and Change (PACE) Laboratory, Iowa State University, 2022
- Teaching Assistant, Department of English, Iowa State University, 2020-2021
Sherrie LaFleur
About Sherrie
Sherrie LaFleur is the research and event administrator for the Iowa Local Technical Assistance Program. She provides event coordination as well as administrative support. Sherrie provides support to Iowa LTAP staff with the coordination of events and workshops and in the delivery of transportation training and outreach efforts to local agency officials.
Katy Clewell
About Katy
Ms. Katy Clewell has been the office coordinator for the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center since May 2024. Her duties include communicating with research and administrative committees for the center; coordinating meetings, webinars, and conferences; making and processing extensive travel arrangements; and other administrative tasks associated with the operation of the center. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa, where she majored in Communication and minored in Public Relations.
Maroa Mumtarin
About Maroa
Maroa Mumtarin is housed at the Institute for Transportation, contributing to various research on projects associated with the Center for Transportation Research and Education.
Brittany Eide
About Brittany
Brittany Eide is a Web Developer and UX/UI Designer for the Iowa Statewide Urban Design and Specifications (SUDAS) program and Iowa Public Works Service Bureau (PWSB). She oversees the PWSB website and designs interactive experiences, from the early stages of ideation and user research, user flows and journeys, design, and prototyping to the final usability tests.
Brittany has over 5 years of experience in communications, marketing, and design roles in the academia, nonprofit, and game industries.
Yazan Abukhalil
About Yazan
Dr. Yazan Abukhalil is a research engineer specializing in transportation asset management, performance-based planning and programming (PBPP), and traffic safety. Over the past two years, Dr. Abukhalil has applied his knowledge to help state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan organizations improve transportation performance outcomes for local businesses, residents, and visitors at the lowest possible cost. This has involved calibrating predictive pavement and bridge deterioration and improvement models, evaluating life-cycle costs, developing optimal and financially constrained work programs, assessing tradeoffs, estimating long-term investment needs, suggesting transportation project prioritization criteria, and evaluating project impacts on network performance. Dr. Abukhalil aims to utilize the skills he acquired during his academic journey and work experience to build a better transportation system by helping DOTs make more informed investment decisions based on public involvement, stakeholder involvement, and data.
Resume
Education
- PhD, Transportation Engineering, Iowa State University
- Graduate Certificate, Geographic Information System (GIS), Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University
- MS, Transportation Engineering, Iowa State University
- BS, Civil Engineering, Iowa State University